5 Minutes With... Michael Robotham
THE JOURNALIST AND GHOSTWRITER TURNED THRILLER WRITER TALKS ABOUT WRITING A SPICE GIRL’S MEMOIR AND HIS LATEST THRILLER, GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL
What’s your new book about?
Evie Cormac [is] a very damaged and vulnerable teenager who was found six years ago hiding in a secret room in a house where a man had been tortured to death. A young forensic psychologist, Cyrus Haven, is sent to the children’s home to interview Evie and decide if she’s ready to be released into society. He discovers a girl who is vain, self-destructive, paranoid and self-hating, but possessed of a unique gift (or a curse): she can tell when someone is lying.
How does it feel to watch your novel The Secrets She Keeps be turned into a TV series?
Having the TV series made in Australia has been a huge advantage because I could get involved from the outset, working on the storyboarding and liaising with the writers who have come up with some brilliant scripts. I have spent a couple of days on set and even managed to get my Stan Lee moment, appearing as an extra in one particular scene.
What draws you to writing crime fiction?
No crime should ever be celebrated, or inspire any writer, but writing in the crime genre allows me to shine a light into the darker corners of the human psyche and modern society, tackling age-old themes such as truth, justice, betrayal, lust, greed and punishment. Oddly enough, I don’t read many crime novels – because I scare myself enough.
You’ve worked as a celebrity ghostwriter in the past – what was that like?
Ghostwriting can be challenging and very rewarding because invariably you finish up working with mercurial, creative, high achievers, who often inherit neuroses along with great talent. I began working with Geri Halliwell when she was hiding out in George Michael’s mansion in LA. On one surreal afternoon we had the world’s paparazzi outside, while I was chatting to Geri, who was wearing a little yellow bikini, while I had borrowed a pair of George’s shorts because I had no appropriate pool-side wear!